The Girl Who Played With Fire review

Something that can kill any thriller or mystery for me is a lack of style or suspense. Earlier this year I reviewed part 1 of the Millennium trilogy "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo", which was being beefed up as a major deal. While I did really enjoy the stylish, sleuth picture I was never fully in love with it all. Now with the "The Girl Who Played with Fire" I'm kind of on the fence about how much I really care this whole story ends.

Like I stated above a huge killer for these sort of movies is a lack of style and suspense and that's the biggest issue here. Director Niels Arden Oplev stepped away and Daniel Alfredson took over for the last two movies. Apparently this was a fucking mistake. Oplev did a great job of creating a gloomy and grim world that our heroin Lisbeth Salander existed in, Alfredson however works to remind us that this movie series is based on books and also a tv show by displaying dull stylization and throwing as much random narrative at us as possible and seeing what sticks. Basically this is a mystery, in a mystery, about another mystery and none of it is made particularly interesting.

Noomi Rapace is Lisbeth, the gothy, hacker with a knack for getting to the bottom of tough cases. We meet up with her a year after the last film as she's preparing to head back to home after noticing some emails on her parole officers computer that she wasn't too fond of. (That makes a lot more sense if you've seen the first movie) On the flip side is friend and journalist Mikael Bloomkvist who's working on a new story with a new reporter involving sex trafficking. When the the new reporter and his author wife are found dead and the murder weapon has Lisbeth's finger prints on it... then something is thought to be... amiss by Bloomkvist and Lisbeth has to decide how she's going to clear her name and find out who's behind it all.

There's more to it all, but nothing too note worthy since none of it works to full capacity. The main yarn is that of a suspenseful expose' story. Really our main character this time out isn't Lisbeth, but instead Mikael; who follows up leads and attempt to figure out who the mystery man behind it all is other than the codename: Zala. Some of his poking and prodding lead to intrigue, but most to boredom. Lisbeth occasionally comes out of her hiding place to strong arm some nasty men into getting answers, but really doesn't do too much until the final act which is... somewhat interesting, but never too thrilling or suspenseful. The revelation of who's behind it all isn't particularly startling either. I question is it the direction or just the story that makes it all so weak. It's very much a bridge plot that appears to lead up directly to part III ('The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest'), but still I feel like with better writing and direction it's a movie that could've been at the least entertaining.

So now this brings up the whole remake business. David Fincher has officially began shooting of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' with Rooney Mara ('A Nightmare on Elm Street' and 'The Social Network') as Lisbeth. Fincher's not known to make mistakes so I have no doubt in his ability to craft an interesting if not widely better thriller than the original. But if things come to pass and the whole trilogy is remade I wouldn't mind seeing it done more like 'Red Riding' in which each film has a different director that brings something slightly different to the table. In anycase I feel like most name filmmakers that could be brought up to do this would probably handle it better than it has been.